Week 5 Endgame: The blueprint for victory – Seahawks vs. Colts

Keys to success

Every week I complain about the Seattle Seahawks‘ slow starts, and every week they respond by starting slowly. It is very frustrating!

This week I don’t think it is key to winning on Sunday.

Sherman and the LOB must put a stop to Luck (Photo: USA TODAY).

The Colts tend to start games slowly as well. We could easily see the first half ending with single digits scores by both teams.

Andrew Luck is a good young quarterback, but I assure you he is no Peyton Manning — not yet at least. Luck does have the ability to make all the throws that Manning makes, but he lacks the experience, and it shows.

I noticed Andrew throws a lot of passes into coverage that defenders just aren’t making plays on.

The Legion of Boom must make him pay for his mistakes. Whether they are a symptom of overconfidence or a lack of understanding the defense, it really doesn’t matter. The important thing is that when Luck throws an ill-advised pass, the Seahawks need to take it away; maybe even take it to the house.

The Seahawks’ defense ranks 14th in the league in sacks this season. Against the Colts they need to pressure Luck and force him into making mistakes. The return of Bruce Irvin should help, but it will be easier said than done. Andrew moves well in the pocket. Like Tom Brady, he does an excellent job feeling pressure and sliding just enough to avoid it while keeping his eyes down the field.

Like everyone else, I am hoping that Max Unger is able to play Sunday. The Seahawks’ offensive line struggles to protect Russell Wilson when everyone is healthy. Missing three starters and sliding the left guard to left tackle isn’t helping matters.

Some people may look at James Carpenter and think that he may have taken over left guard from Paul McQuistan by now even if everyone was healthy.

Maybe he would have, but maybe not. What I do know is that James is too heavy to be quick enough to be an effective pass blocker. As strong as he is in the running game, he is a liability in the passing attack.

Only one offensive lineman is starting in the same position he was Week 1, and he hasn’t been very good. JR Sweezy misses a lot of blocks and has really slowed down the offense.

Somehow the unit must find a way to protect Russell Wilson. The job becomes a lot tougher if Zach Miller‘s hamstring keeps him out of the game.

After watching the Colts play, I am seriously unimpressed. Maybe it is the homer in me, but when I look at this matchup I see a game that the Seahawks should win easily.

The Seahawks will need quite the performance to shut down Andrew Luck this Sunday.

When I looked at the Colts’ record, especially their win over the 49ers, I thought that this was going to be a tough game. Then I looked a little closer. Last week the Colts beat the Jaguars just like everyone else does. Their other win was against the Oakland Raiders, who’s only win this season came when they beat the Jaguars.

But they crushed the 49ers at Candlestick Park. That has to say something right? I’m not so sure it says as much as everyone thinks it does.

The 49ers were coming off of a sole-crushing loss to the Seahawks. Their second beat down at the hands of Seattle in as many meetings. Adding to their issues was the arrest of Aldon Smith on suspicions of drunk driving. Later we found out that Aldon’s issues were much deeper than a simple DUI; not that DUI’s aren’t a big deal, but I suspect the locker room knew the ordeal he was about to face.

When looking at the scoreboard, it really looked like the Colts beat the 49ers easily. That isn’t exactly true.

The 49ers were in the game until the 4th quarter, trailing by only 6 points at the start of the final quarter.

To that point in the game, the 49ers were not playing very well yet they were still in it. Then San Francisco completely fell apart. The nail in their coffin came when Colin Kaepernick fumbled the ball deep in 49ers territory.

The Seahawks are by far the better team — the question is whether they will play like it on Sunday. At the beginning of the Week 1 thought this was going to be a close game. After watching the Colts on film, I think the Seahawks will easily come home with a victory.